Beyond the Color Barrier: The Gospel, Race and the Future of Christianity in America

Time:

8 pm, Old Cabell Hall at the University of Virginia

Date:

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Description:

Why is the University so often marked by race despite its origin as a singular village of academic pursuits? From Rugby Road to Asian cultural organizations, StudCo to OAAA peer mentoring, U.Va seems torn between embracing unity or honoring the uniqueness of colors and cultures.

Yet the gospel proclaims the reconciliation of all things in Christ, where neighbors come together as unique individuals AND unified communities, where all social orders are remade in the image of God. What would that look like here at U.Va? How does reconciliation happen in the Kingdom today?

At the COLOR BARRIER, we'll seek to engage these questions in a conversation on scripture. Anthony Bradley will present a biblical theology of ethnicity (what is race/ethnicity according to God?). Soong-Chan Rah will explore the impact that our shifting ethnic demographics will have on the future of American Christianity and offer a practical challenge in carrying out God's reconciling work both on Grounds and beyond.

Speakers:

Anthony Bradley, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics in the Public Service Program at The King’s College in New York City and serves as a Research Fellow at the Acton Institute. See his full bio here.

Soong-Chan Rah is Milton B. Engebretson Associate Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL and the author of The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity (IVP Books, 2009). Rah is formerly the founding Senior Pastor of the Cambridge Community Fellowship Church (CCFC), a multi-ethnic, urban ministry-focused church committed to living out the values of racial reconciliation and social justice in the urban context. Soong-Chan has previously been part of a church planting team in the Washington DC area, worked for a number of years with IVCF in Boston (specifically at MIT), and had mobilized CCFC to plant two additional churches. Read more about Rev. Dr. Rah here.